Social housing: 'No right' to live in expensive areas

Social housing in expensive areas of England should be sold off and the money used to finance the building of new homes in cheaper areas, the think tank Policy Exchange says.

Neil O'Brien, director of the think tank Policy Exchange, said he does not believe anybody "has a right to live in the most expensive parts of town."

"People do have a right to be housed but not in the very expensive areas," he explained.

Speaking to the Today programme he said that putting poor people in expensive areas does not create mixed communities but rather "parallel" ones and explained that if more social housing is built, "we can pepper pot it amongst other communities".

Labour MP Karen Buck believes that the proposals would lead to a "dramatic erosion" and "an inflated overseas housing bubble".

She told Evan Davis that "in effect, it only takes us back to where we were before."

"We ended up with far fewer social properties overall... people simply can't find anywhere to live," she said.

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